Ghanaian film maker Peter Sedufia has said that films that put Africa in a positive light do not sell on the Western movie market.

According to him, because the Western movie market is Africa’s largest selling point, it becomes difficult for film makers in African to do films that glorify the continent. 

“African doesn’t have the market, I am telling you the truth. Our markets are in the Western world. They tend to pay more money for our content. And those people, they are not enthused about an empowered Africa, a very beautiful Africa.  

If you give them those films they are like ‘oh this is not the Africa I know’. So those films don’t even go anywhere. They feel like you are just trying to lie about your continent,” he said. 

He added that a lot of African movie makers who seek to win the Western market have had to tell the African story through the lenses of poverty, famine and diseases.

“And then when you start giving them the impoverished, the war-torn,  the dirty Africa, they are like ‘wow.’  You see how they rush for such films and pay a lot of money for it,” Peter noted.

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Unfortunately, he said the African market is weak to support the African film producer in advancing causes like this. 

He made this statement in Joy Entertainment’s Twitter Spaces conversation held Wednesday, February 22, 2023 on @joy997fm Twitter handle. 

The ‘Keteke’ film maker also explained why a lot of African film makers do not venture into biopics and historical movies. 

“Those stories come with a lot of budget. You are re-creating a whole era, whole generation, a whole circa.  And it comes with a lot of money that we don’t have and that is why we don’t tell those kind of stories,” he stated.

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He indicated that naturally telling a story that one is already familiar with is boring, a reason foreign movie producers like to produce movies that tell stories of Africa. 

He made his submissions while Joy Entertainment was examining how well African film makers could tell the African story, in their Twitter Spaces conversation.

Peter Sedufia is known for films like ‘Keteke’, ‘Aloe Vera’, ‘Side Chic Ghana’, ‘The Three Maids’, among others.